Monthly Archives: August 2014

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Old contacts can be part of the hexagram today as someone, somewhere, and/or something can literally come out of the woodwork to get in touch with you. Interestingly, you no longer feel any affiliation with that person, place or thing. That realization can bring you some peace of mind. It can also open you to a greater sense of where you are going as you find yourself no longer tied down to that particular vibration. And vibration will be very important today. Be aware of the sounds around you. Some you cannot miss; others will be subliminal. Also, the light that you see glimmering at the edge of your vision is an indication of things to come. You have made it this far. You have done well. Tomorrow holds a promise for you, so get ready for a surprise.

If you were provided with photos of a random set of people, as well as separate photos of those people’s dogs, chances are, you could match up the right person with their pet.

How? Scientists think it has something to do with the eyes — they’re just not sure what exactly that something is.

Sadahiko Nakajima, a psychologist at Japan’s Kwansei Gakuin University, has been trying to figure out how people are able to match pets with their owners at a rate greater than chance could account for.

He considered the obvious: Maybe men are simply more likely to own large breed dogs. Perhaps women with long hair are more likely to have dogs with long, floppy ears.

However, even when experiments are designed to exclude these superficial characteristics, people are still able to match strangers with the correct pets.

In a 2009 study, Nakajima found that participants could not only match photos of pet owners with their dogs by facial appearance alone, but they could also recognize which randomly paired dog-and-owner photos were fake.

This clued Nakajima in that something about facial appearances was giving participants hints at which dog belonged to which person, so he designed an experiment to determine what part of the face was responsible.

He created test sheets that each included 20 sets of dog-human pairs. One sheet featured actual dog-human pairs while the other had randomly matched pairs.

The photos were basic headshots cropped at the shoulders, and the photos sets included an equal number of male and female owners, as well as a variety of dog breeds.

The 502 Japanese undergraduate students who participated in the study were randomly assigned to one of five different groups. Each group received test sheets that had been “masked” in a different way.

In one, the humans’ eyes were covered, and in another, the dogs’ eyes were. One also showed only both the dogs’ and humans’ eyes, while another covered their mouths.

The control group received photos that showed the full faces of the humans and the dogs.

Those who saw the unobstructed faces were quite good at determining which human-dog pairs were fake, and 80 percent were able to select the real-life human-dog pairs.

The group that received the photos with concealed mouths were also fairly good with 73 percent making the correct matches.

However, when the humans’ eyes or dogs’ eyes were covered, participants’ ability to select the right human-dog pairs fell to statistically chance levels.

But those in the eye-only group proved to be almost as good as selecting the real-life human-dog pairs as those who viewed the unobstructed faces. Seventy-four percent chose the correct pairs by looking at the eyes alone.

This finding was so surprising that Nakajima duplicated the study with an entirely new batch of participants and this time, 76 percent picked the right pairs.

As Nakajima notes in the study, because all the human models were Asian, they all had similar dark-colored eyes, so there must be something else — some shared look — that clues people in to what dog belongs to which person.

He’s not sure what it is about the eyes that communicates a shared bond, but this isn’t the first study that’s found people are able to extract psychological cues from the eyes.

In fact, a 2009 Tufts University study found that participants were able to discern a stranger’s sexual orientation simply from looking at photos of people’s eyes.

Could a mummy’s curse be causing earthquakes and floods in Siberia?

Locals believe that removing the Siberian Ice Princess from her final resting place may have opened a door to the kingdom of the dead. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

After the mummified remains of a beautifully adorned, 5th-century BC woman were discovered in Siberia’s Altai Mountains in 1993, the find was heralded as “one of the most significant archeological discoveries at the close of the 20th century.” But recent earthquakes and floods in the region have locals believing that removing the ice princess from her pallid slumber may have angered her, as well as opened some kind of ghastly gate to the underworld, reports the Daily Mail.

The superstition has garnered so much momentum that the Council of Elders in Altai, a group representing native Siberians in the region, has passed a vote to rebury the mummy’s remains, a decision apparently accepted by local governor Alexander Berdnikov. A ban has already been imposed on further archeological digs in other burial mounds in the area.

The irrational fervor comes at the heels of recent flooding — the worst seen in over 50 years — and earthquakes that have imperiled the region. According to the local Altai peoples, who are not genetically related to the mummy (also known as Ooch-Bala), the purpose of the elaborately decorated corpse in her burial chamber was “to bar the entrance to the kingdom of the dead.” Now that she has been removed, an entrance to the underworld has been left open.

“Naked and defenseless, Ooch-Bala is freezing from inexplicable shame,” claimed campaigners. “Who puts the naked corpse of their mother on public display? She knocks into our heart, seeking compassion. She is cold from evil indifference.”

Aside from objecting to the mummy’s original exhumation, the native people in Altai also objected to plans to display her in a glass sarcophagus in a museum within the city of Gorno-Altaisk.

The mummy, also known as Princess Ukok or the Siberian Ice Maiden, is particularly significant because of the highly artistic tattoos that adorn her body, which reveals much about her ancient culture.

“Compared to all tattoos found by archeologists around the world, those on the mummies of the Pazyryk people are the most complicated, and the most beautiful,” said Natalia Polosmak, the researcher who originally excavated the mummy. “More ancient tattoos have been found, like the Ice Man found in the Alps — but he only had lines, not the perfect and highly artistic images one can see on the bodies of the Pazyryks.”

Princess Ukok’s tattoos include fantastical mythological animals like a deer with a griffon’s beak, a Capricorn’s antlers that are decorated with the heads of griffons, and a spotted panther with a long tail and the legs of a sheep. She was also buried with six horses, saddled and bridled — possibly representing her spiritual escorts to the next world. The elaborate burial is likely a symbol of her high status, possibly as a folk tale narrator, a healer or a holy woman.

The museum is reluctant to give in to the superstition that these remains are infected with a mummy’s curse, but it seems likely that this beautiful mummy will eventually be reburied, left to decay in the permafrost.

“Plastics do not biodegrade, although, under the influence of solar UV radiations, plastics do degrade and fragment into small particles, termed microplastics.”

This presents humans with a challenge that must soon be met, considering much of our plastic trash ends up in the ocean where it breaks down into toxic microplastics, winding up in sea life. Not only is this dangerous to the sea life, but it’s also dangerous to people because we end up consuming these very fish which we are poisoning with our trash.

Many groups and organizations have been formed to clean up plastic that ends up washing ashore on our beaches, but the vast majority of plastic pollution ends up in the ocean. The planet has a growing addiction to cheap and industrious plastic, increasing in use exponentially every year with no end in sight.

This is why the discovery of plastic-eating fungus is so exciting. According to Inhabitat,

On an expedition to the rainforest of Ecuador, students from Yale’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry discovered a previously unknown fungus that has a healthy appetite for polyurethane. According to Fast Company, the fungus is the first one that is known to survive on polyurethane alone, and it can do so in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment, which suggests that it could be used at the bottom of landfills.

It isn’t exactly clear how this fungus will be implemented in bioremediation, but one can picture floating plastic islands covered in mushrooms which will eat the entire trash pile then sink into the ocean.

It’s also important to wean ourselves away from petroleum based plastics because they require many resources just to manufacture, and pollution doesn’t start or end with the trash in the gutter. Many other sustainable options are available which could used instead, like hemp based or other plant based plastics.

The power of I AM in healing, forgiving and moving through difficult situations

Saturday, August 30, 2014 by: Lance Johnson

(NaturalNews) Humans are a gifted, blessed species with a level of spiritual free will that often goes unused in modern day society. It’s easy to feel doubt, to feel less than capable, letting time pass us by.

But humans have more power than they are led to believe. The great I AM pulsates through everything with confident divinity. Every passing moment, a person’s reality is created by a magical and synergistic blend of beliefs, intentions, thoughts and actions. Negative experiences from the past can skew one’s future reality by distorting their beliefs. The beliefs humans carry around initiate the trajectory for what may or may not come into their future reality. To let go of the old and embrace the new requires one to let go of past experiences, adopting a new mindset of hope.

As world-class rock band Rush puts it, “The future disappears into memory, with only a moment between. Forever dwells in that moment; hope is what remains to be seen.”

Subconscious affirmations guide our world view and what we attract

Each person’s subconscious mind holds a culmination of affirmations that play quietly, over and over inside their head. These thoughts make the person feel a certain way, influencing how they see the world around them. These affirmations may be negative or positive and may stay with a person, as long as they let these deep embedded thoughts remain a part of them. These affirmations are often derived from past experiences, or they may be stored because the person holds tight to the opinions of other people.

What we do to others, we do to ourselves

Every action that we engage in, every word that we breathe, every intention that we conjure, is sent out into time and space in our waking universe. What we do to others, what we do to the planet, is what we ultimately do to ourselves. This is how the human race is connected. When one gossips about others, they are only bringing more gossip upon themselves, into their reality, perpetuating a cycle of negative emotions. When one hurts another, the victim can choose to forgive, effectively ending the cycle of pain. This is why it’s important for humans to be mindful for what they ask into their lives, treating each one of their own thoughts and actions with caution and reverence. The golden rule applies: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

The power of I AM and I CAN in healing, forgiveness, and accomplishment

Two of the most powerful affirmations in the universe are the phrases “I AM,” and “I CAN.” These simple phrases can be turned into guiding principles that strengthen a person’s ability to heal, to mend relationships, to forgive, to move through difficult times.

A person defines who they are by consciously declaring the I AM’s in their life. With concentrated, precision-thought and mindful meditation, positive I AM’s can transform a person’s life, by opening up new doors, opportunities and relationships. Reality can change for anyone willing to move boldly in faith.

I CAN is a similar powerful set of guiding beliefs. What is the human race capable of if they embrace the power of I AM and I CAN positively? How do humans limit their own ability to learn and grow by holding onto negative affirmations and bitter accord?

As Rush so eloquently puts it, “The treasure of a life, is the measure of love and respect — the way you live, the gifts that you give.”

The Icelandic eruption that everyone has been waiting for ended up being small, lasting ~3-4 hours and producing lava flows and spatter ramparts. Video of this morning’s flyover show a linear fissure about 0.6 km long (see above) that is still degassing strongly, but no lava is currently erupting. A shot of the eruption site (see above) released today clearly shows the short lava flow tongues that issued from the fissure during the brief eruption. Right now, there is no threat at all to aviation and even during the height of the eruption last night, the explosivity was low. The IMO has lowered the aviation alert level back to orange and briefly raising it to red during the eruption last night. The latest statement from the IMO says that they are still unsure how the eruption may proceed: this might be it or new fissures may open in the area as more magma reaches the surface.

The Rabaul eruption is probably the one to watch most closely because the Rabaul caldera has a history of explosive eruptions and is much closer to populated area. Right now, the Icelandic eruption is about a benign as an eruption can be: it is in a remote area and has been lava flows with some lava fountains. The Icelandic events have definitely captured the public’s imagination, but in terms of real world volcanic hazards, Rabaul is the real threat.

A pilot and his co-pilot have spotted a mysterious orange and red glow over the Pacific Ocean.

The strange lights were spotted south of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka during the flight of a Boeing 747-8 from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska.

And while no explanation has yet been given, it’s thought that they may have originated from the explosion of a huge volcano under the surface of the ocean.

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Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka (image by Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst). The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska. The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen

WHAT CAUSED THIS MYSTERY GLOW?

After the initial vertical lightning bolt it was thought the phenomenon could have been a thunderstorm, but that was ruled out when none were reported in the area.

The predominant theory at the moment is that the lights were caused by an underwater volcano.

Such eruptions are not unprecedented; on 21 November 2013 an submarine volcano famously created a new ‘island’ off the coast of Japan.

Another explanation is they were caused by lights from fishing boats.

Last week astronaut Reid Riseman was left baffled by a similarly bizarre green flurry of lights (shown below) off the coast of Bangkok.

It is thought those lights were in fact created by fishing boats. The offshore illumination comes from enormous arrays of bright green LED lights used to attract squid and other sea life to the surface.

However that explanation has been ruled out for the latest mystery glow, as more than 50 boats would be needed to produce light of this magnitude – but no fleet of fishing boats was thought to be operating in the area.

Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst explained on PBase how, five hours into the ten-hour flight, they spotted an intense flash of light like a lightning bolt, directed vertically up in the distance.

This was then followed by a deep red and orange glow 20 minutes later.

And the experience left van Heijst somewhat perturbed, owing to the lack of an explanation for what happened.

‘Last night over the Pacific Ocean, somewhere South of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka I experienced the creepiest thing so far in my flying career,’ he said.

There were no thunderstorms on their route or weather-radar, suggesting the lightning did not originate in a storm.

The glow is also a mystery; similar lights have been spotted from squid-fishing-boats, but van Heijst says this ‘would not make sense in this area’.

‘The closer we got, the more intense the glow became, illuminating the clouds and sky below us in a scary orange glow, in a part of the world where there was supposed to be nothing but water,’ he continued.

‘The only cause of this red glow that we could think of, was the explosion of a huge volcano just underneath the surface of the ocean, about 30 minutes before we overflew that exact position.’

He was then nervous of encountering an ash-plume in the middle of the night, but fortunately they did not encounter anything of the sort.

Before the flight they had heard via radio about earthquakes in Iceland, Chile and San Francisco.

But despite their being a few volcanoes on their route, they had had not been alerted to any new activity – although this doesn’t necessarily include unseen underwater volcanoes.

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The strange lights (shown at the pink dot) were spotted south of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka during a flight from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska (flight path in blue)

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Van Heijst ruled out squid-fishing-boats as the origin. He says the cause may have been an underwater volcano. An ongoing investigation is taking place to find out what happened

Together with his co-pilot van Heijst says they felt ‘everything but comfortable’, while no other aircraft were nearby to confirm the sighting.

‘We reported our observations to Air Traffic Control and an investigation into what happened in this remote region of the ocean is now started,’ he added.

‘Now I’m just hoping that if a new island has been formed there [from the eruption], at least it can be named after me as the official discoverer.

Ignore the IQ test: your level of intelligence is not fixed for life

We’re getting more stupid. That’s one point made in a recent article in the New Scientist, reporting on a gradual decline in IQs in developed countries such as the UK, Australia and the Netherlands. Such research feeds into a long-held fascination with testing human intelligence. Yet such debates are too focused on IQ as a life-long trait that can’t be changed. Other research is beginning to show the opposite.

The concept of testing intelligence was first successfuly devised by French psychologists in the early 1900s to help describe differences in how well and quickly children learn at school. But it is now frequently used to explain that difference – that we all have a fixed and inherent level of intelligence that limits how fast we can learn.

But what many people fail to understand is that if IQ tests measured only our skills at these particular tasks, no one would be interested in our score. The score is interesting only because it is thought to be fixed for life.

Who is getting smarter?

Standardised IQ tests used by clinical psychologists for diagnostic purposes, such as the Weschler scale, are designed in such a way that it is not easy to prepare for them. The contents are kept surprisingly secret and they are changed regularly. The score given for an individual is a relative one, adjusted based on the performance of people of the same age.

But even as we become better educated and more skillful at the types of tasks measured on IQ tests (a phenomenon known as the “Flynn effect”, after James Fylnn who first noted it) our IQs stay pretty much the same. This is because the IQ scoring system takes into account the amount of improvement expected over time, and then discounts it. This type of score is called a “standardised score” – it hides your true score and merely represents your standing in relation to your peers who have also been getting smarter at about the same rate.

This apparent stability in IQ scores makes intelligence look relatively constant, whereas in fact we are all becoming more intelligent across and within our lifetimes. The IQ test and the IQ scoring system are constantly adjusted to ensure that the average IQ remains at 100, despite a well-noted increase in intellectual ability worldwide.

Politics of IQ testing

Psychologists are aware that intelligence scores are somewhat subject to cultural influence and social opportunity, but some have still insisted that we cannot raise our IQ by much. This is because our general intelligence (or “g”) is a fixed trait that is insensitive to education, “brain training”, diet, or other interventions. In other words, they say, we are all biologically limited in our intelligence levels.

The idea that IQ is fixed for life is built into the questionable politics of IQ testing. The most serious consequence of this is the use of IQ tests to blame educational difficulties on students rather than on teaching systems.

But it is the job of psychologists to find better ways to teach, not to find better ways to justify the poor performance of students. This particular use of IQ tests has caused one leader in the field of intelligence research, Robert Sternberg, to refer to IQ testing as “negative psychology” in a 2008 article.

All is not lost

Those who hang dearly onto the notion that IQ is fixed for life have managed to ignore decades of published research in the field of applied behaviour analysis. This has reported very large IQ gains in children with autism who have been exposed to early intensive behavioural interventions once they have been diagnosed with learning difficulties.

Another 2009 Norwegian study examined the effects of an increase in the duration of compulsory schooling in Norway in the 1960s which lengthened the time in education for Norwegians by two years. The researchers used records of cognitive ability taken by the military to calculate the IQ of each individual in the study. They found that IQ had increased by 3.7 points for every extra year of education received.

More recent studies by John Jonides and his colleagues at the University of Michigan reported improvements in objective measures of intelligence for those who practised a brain-training task called the “n-back task” – a kind of computerised memory test.

My own research, in the field of relational frame theory, has shown that understanding relations between words, such as “more than”, “less than” or “opposite” is crucial for our intellectual development. One recent pilot study showed that we can considerably raise standard IQ scores by training children in relational language skills tasks over a period of months. Again, this finding challenges the idea that intelligence is fixed for life.

So it’s about time we reconsidered our ideas about the nature of intelligence as a trait that cannot be changed. Undoubtedly, there may be some limits to the development of our intellectual skills. But in the short term, the socially responsible thing to do is not to feel bound by those limits, but to help every child work towards and even exceed them.

This is a day for raveling and unraveling. You will see this in your relationships as some people begin to weave complicated stories and explanations for seemingly insignificant items. On the other hand, there will be a coming undone in other relationships and other areas. There are those around you who are making some hard choices about how they are wanting to respond to the current and coming energy and how much they wish or do not wish to take part in it. There is a wave of sorrow that is gathering and you will begin to feel it today as Earth movements begin to take a new turn, and you hear of unexpected storms and tremors. Things that have been slowly heating up are getting hotter. This is a day for stepping back and seeing how all the various elements begin to move towards a new alignment. Today is also a day of power as you have the ability to work with the energy and begin to create the newness that you have been intending for so long.

Update : Due to the deep hypocenter, this earthquake will have been felt by millions of people who, if the data are right, will all of them have felt a weak or max. light shaking

Update : ER does not expect damage because of this earthquake. 2 main reasons for this : a) a deep hypocenter which means that strong shaking waves will be weaker when they arrive at the surface and b) the epicenter below the sea floor (below land is always more dangerous)